YEAR 10

I was inspired by Golden Grasses to count how many years we have been homeschooling. I cannot believe we are going into year 10. I had planned on homeschooling, but I was having a hard time parenting my oldest. So, he attended a 9 hour a week preschool that was amazing and only a 5 minute walk away from home. He then attended K and a part of Grade 1. By that time, we ended up moving out of state. We chose to homeschool. We have had a short period back in school for our oldest. He went to the first half of Grade 4 which I hoped would make it easier for me while I went to the University. Our second child was attending and had a wonderful kindergarten experience. So, we thought we would try Grade 1 and Grade 4. Turned out the experience wasn't so lovely and they came home. We have been homeschooling ever since. My third son has never attended school except for speech therapy. I pray the next two can be homeschooled, as well.

We have unschooled, used KONOS unit studies pretty mildly, a light version of TWTM, Waldorf inspired with Oak Meadow, and now back around again. We are taking a wee break this summer and looking forward to the upcoming year. I completely respect the input of my children. We need a balance of what they like and need AND what I am able to do and give. I won't label us. I just cannot. This is our journey. I assumed that meant we were unschooling if I read John Holt correctly. But, I could be bashed by curriculum haters. My children and I discuss what they learn. They fashion their days. I am here to guide and discuss with the older two. My third son has some delays and therefore we do his learning together. It isn't always rosey. But, he needs guidance. Curriculum helps us get there.

This year I am going to accept that we are late starters. I am going to accept that. We feel better if we get some lounging and a walk in for our morning time. I am going to trust that our educational journey is a beautiful representation of our personal family. I am looking forward to learning more about each other. We have some plans that we want to work on, goals that we have set together. But, this is the first year that I am going to stay I just want to watch our story unfold.

Summer Learning

We really should be learning all year long. We used to when we were more relaxed. Our VA program keeps us a bit on track. But, we miss our natural learning.

::We plan to have fun this summer.
::We plan to not waste away the summer on video games.
::We plan to listen to more good stuff like the The Daily Audio Bible, finish Story of the World Volume 4 on CD, Start Story of the World Volume 1 Ancients...


Today we...
::played crazy eights
::played monopoly
::listened to the Audio Bible
::listened to SOTW 4 CD 10

Planning for 2011-2012 Day 1

The Reason I have been too busy to blog.

I am starting my planning already.  I suggest a little breather.  In my dream world I would venture out to a beautiful cottage by the sea for a three day weekend.  I would take all my curriculum and my favorite cozy clothes.  I would then make gorgeous plans that would instill lasting lifetime memories for my children.

But, I need to be realistic.  We haven't the money for all that.  Goodness we haven't the time.  So, I will work on plans in between nursing sessions, cooking making, visits to the local beach, and lots of outside potty training time for our toddler.

Some places I go for planning inspiration

Rockin Granola share her weekly schedule, plenty of cute pics and always finds ways to include the little people.

Parenting Passageway   helps keep you centered and remains picture less which I find keeps me from coveting their homeschooling. Thus I remember to focus on our own journey!

A Little Garden Flower & Waldorf Essentials is a great place to get affordable waldorf curriculum and listen to wonderful podcasts.

Ancient Hearth has lots of great chalkboard drawings

Wee Waldorf  has lots of crafts

Our Journey 'Round the Mulberry bush  shares pics of Main Lesson Books and Chalkboard drawings.

Wrapping up May

So, it is the official end to our school year.  The boys will keep doing a few things through the summer.  The older two really want to catch up in Math.  Since, we have been using Teaching Textbooks that seems like an easy one to plug away at.


This is our oldest aka The Prophet.  This year he turned 14.  He can officially fit into his Dad's pants.  It has been quite warm here.  He grew out of his shorts, so he borrowed a pair from Dad and they fit perfectly.  He learned a lot of Modern History and studied Physics and some Chemistry in Science.  He is finishing up Teaching Textbooks 7 and Language Lessons for the Secondary Child this summer.  He will be reading Collapse and The Left Behind Series.


This is our second child aka The Peacemaker.  He is growing into quite the fine man.  He is really helpful with his little sister, even though she gets on his nerves sometimes.  He loves to cook and he loves animals.  He has stuck to being a Vegetarian and I dare say he will continue it throughout his lifetime.  He studied Modern History this year.  He worked a lot with Science kit and learned about Chemistry.  He will be finishing up Teaching Textbooks 5 and Language Lessons for the Elementary Child this summer.


Our third child aka The Warrior.  He is doing much better this year.  He is on his second set of Bob Books.  He will spend this summer working on reading through the entire set of Bob Books and some handwriting sheets I printed off the internet.  He will start on Teaching Textbooks 3 as soon as it gets here.

Summery School

Man I haven't been around at all.  We are still homeschooling.  We are still adjusting to the needs of a family of 7.  Our youngest is doing much better.  He is still small but he is steadily gaining and nursing well.  The boys are doing a light bit of school through the summer.  Math, Reading, and some light language arts for each.  The boys all  have some work to finish up from this year and some work to get them caught up to "official grade levels". 

G is finishing up Language Lessons for the Secondary Child, Teaching Textbooks 7, and reading The Left Behind Series.

P is finishing up Language Lessons for the Elementary Child, Teaching Textbooks 5, and reading The Warriors Series

E is doing handwriting worksheets and reading Bob Books.  

Weekly Update

Gibran

I did 4 lessons of math this week.  The first lesson was comparing decimals.  I had to find out if they were bigger, smaller, or equal.  I learned about adding and subtracting decimals.  You have to line up the decimals points with each other or it doesn't work.  I filled in holes in decimals.  You may need to put a zero in to a decimal to line up the problem correctly.  I learned how to multiply with decimals.  You lined them up.  You don't need to line up the decimal points.  

In Science I learned about magnetism.  The North and South poles are magnets.  I, also, learned about electromagnets and magnetal waves around earth.  The solar waves can be deflected or go through the magnetal waves.  I did a quiz about it online.  I did a narration about what I learned, too.

I learned about Nazi Germany and Hitler's rise to power.  I learned about Spain and their civil war after world war II.  I did some notebook pages like a map and a narration for it.

In Language Lessons, I looked at a picture of India and a guy riding on an elephant and I had to answer questions about it.  I did a large story about the man riding on his elephant and his day. I copied a stanza of a poem.  

I did five pages of handwriting and they were mostly about the solar system.  

Porter

I learned about linking verbs.

I finished my book.

I made a breath analyzer.  I breathed into it after putting some chemicals into it.  

I learned about multiples, long multiplication, and multiplying numbers with zero.

My friends came over and we played capture the flag.  They are in CVA, too.

Escher

The Coyote and the Wolf first start out on a raft.  They ask the turtle to pick up the mud. They made it into a ball.  It got so big it turned into land. Then there was a cave. Animals came out of the cave.  Coyote wished for big food. 

I subtract minus two.

My mom write words with D. Then I copied them on the side of the paper.

I learned about life cycles. People die, people grow, and people are born.  Plants die and leave seeds.  Mammals are animals that feed milk to their babies.  I am a mammal.

A Bit of February

Our year is racing by. I still need a new camera. Ours works but my husband keeps running off with it. His phone takes perfectly good pictures, too. I think I have my birthday wish already!

I wish I had pictures to share. It is always the best part of blogging snd reading blogs...catching those glimpses of life and growth.


Gibran

I did in 5 lessons in Math.  The first lesson I learned how to add and subtract with different denominators in fractions.  I learned how to add and subtract more than two fractions at a time.  I learned about converting a mixed number into a improper fraction.  I learned how to add or subtract with all types of numbers like problems with with mixed numbers and fractions.  I did the chapter 9 quiz.  In Language Lessons, I copied a poem which was five stanzas long.  It was about America.  In History, I did mapwork and my timeline for chapter 20 and 21 which was about World War I, The Russian Revolution, and communism.  I did two pages of Italics.  

Porter

Everything has chemical reactions.  Chemical reactions help things be alive, like animals, plants, and humans.  There are four general types of chemical reactions. The first one is combination.  The second kind is decomposition.  The third one is displacement reaction.  It happens when another atoms replaces one.  The fourth is exchange reaction.  I looked at the Usborne Science Encyclopedia section on chemical reactions.  I played a game online at http://www.knowitall.org/hobbyShop/siteAgent.html about chemical reactions.  I made an ingredient that is made for chalk.  I dragged bottles around and poured them into a cup.  They changed colors and made a thick white substance in the bottom of the cup.  I did long subtraction.  Like 29 + 36 + 45 + 89.  We ran the mile outside in PE this week.  We were going to play  soccer but plans changed.  It was a really nice day out.  In the pool, we did this thing where we had to make rafts out of supplies from the pool.  Everybody had to grab onto the raft and push it to the other side.  



Escher
I listened to Mom read Aladdin.  Aladdin got his lamp back.  I did math problems that equal ten.  I took the blocks and I needed to make ten out of them.  Like I made an 8 and a 2, 4 and a 6, 5 and 5.  I ran around the track without walking.  We can't walk.  We only can run or jog.  We had an obstacle course.  They put stuff everywhere to make the mind field.  Then somebody is blindfolded and their partner helped them.  They said left, right, forward, backward, or jump stuff.  I got to be blindfolded.  And, we need to have these flat things that you lift up and down.